26 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
Nushagak and Wood rivers, in western Alaska, were closed to com- 
mercial fishing by an order of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor 
dated December 19, 1907, and first effective during the season of 1908. 
The order was as follows : 
A hearing having been given at the Department of Commerce and Labor, 
beginning December 16, 1907, at which all persons interested in the closing or 
nonclosing of Wood and Nushagak rivers, Alaska, for fishing purposes were fully 
heard, due notice of which was given according to law, by virtue of the authority 
vested in me by section 6 of “An act for the protection and regulation of the 
fisheries of Alaska,” approved June 26, 1906, it is hereby ordered that until 
further notice Wood River, a tributary of Nushagak Bay, in the district of 
Alaska, and the region within .500 yards of the mouth of said Wood River be 
closed to all commercial fishing, and that all commercial fishing be prohibited in 
Nushagak River proper. 
This order becomes effective January 1, 1908. 
The presence of the salmon agent in the region of Wood and 
Nushagak rivers for the purpose of enforcing the foregoing order 
made possible an experimental count of red salmon on a scale and in 
a manner never before attempted. In conjunction with the Alaska 
Packers’ Association of San Francisco and the Alaska-Portland 
Packers’ Association of Portland, the Bureau of Fisheries placed a 
rack across the foot of Lake Aleknagik, the first of the Wood River 
series of lakes, and provided this rack with tunnels or gates through 
which the migrating salmon had to pass to reach their spawning 
grounds. A daily tally was kept, and a count of the entire run was 
obtained in such a way as to give a figure that may be accepted as 
very close approximation to the actual number. A few hundred fish 
passed up before July 1 and several thousand during the first ten 
days in August, but the height of the run was from July 7 to July 29. 
On July 14 over 402,000 fish were counted and on the next day over 
824.000. The total tally was 2,603,655 fish, which escaped the very 
active fishing in Nushagak Bay; in addition to these several million 
fish are known to have ascended other tributaries of Nushagak Bay 
to their spawning grounds. From the data at hand it appears that 
the maximum number of red salmon that entered Nushagak basin in 
1908 was 13,600,000 and the minimum number was not less than 
10.100.000, of which 6,400,000 fish were caught and utilized at the 
local canneries. Therefore under the most favorable conditions for 
reproduction, 52.9 per cent of the run escaped, and under the most 
unfavorable, 36.6 per cent. It is the intention to continue this experi- 
mental counting of salmon in the expectation that accurate data may 
be obtained relative to the natural increment of the fish, so that, know- 
ing the approximate size of the run, the minimum number necessary 
to maintain the supply may be allowed to escape and the remainder 
placed at the disposal of the fishermen. 
